Upgrading hard drive-activation

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Guest

Hi...i got xp pro oem installed on a 10 gb drive...i want to upgrade it to
bigger drive....do i have to re-activate windows?
 
No. Just make certain you use either Disk Imaging software or the utilities
that came with the new drive to move XP from your old drive to the new
drive. I would then remove the old drive and boot using the new drive to
verify everything is OK. Since the old drive is very small I would leave it
disconnected.

JS
 
chaandi said:
Hi...i got xp pro oem installed on a 10 gb drive...i want to upgrade
it to bigger drive....do i have to re-activate windows?
Click to expand...

Depends on a couple of things. And not whether the new drive is exactly the
same as the old one as was intimated by one poster. But it's no big deal;
if you're asked to activate, just do it. Worst case you'll have to make a
phone call and spend a minute or so on it. No big deal.

HTH

Pop`
 
chaandi said:
Hi...i got xp pro oem installed on a 10 gb drive...i want to upgrade it to
bigger drive....do i have to re-activate windows?
Click to expand...


How are you going to upgrade the disk?

I'll describe the quickest way below, but first, to what you need.

1) You need the new, larger drive. For this, you need to be aware of what
your system BIOS restrictions are. If your system came with a 10 gig drive,
it may very well be older, and the system BIOS may have issues with drives
much over, say, 40 or 120 gig. Larger drives may physically work, but the
full size will be unused. This will take a small amount of research on
your part, using the PC, motherboard and BIOS revision information It may
not be worth upgrading the BIOS.

I can't even find a 40 gig drive for sale in a quick search, but an 80 gig
where I am is around CDN$47.00.

2) you need a way to attach two drives to another system, because you're
likely out of space. But if you can install a 100 mb application, you need
one USB 2 drive case. If you can't, you need another system you can attach
one drive to internally or two externally. USB2 drive cases start around
$20.

3) If your system also has USB1, get an add-on card for USB2. USB2 is
ridiculoulsy faster, and the card is cheap and trivial to install. Shut
down, open the case, find an open slot, install the card, close the case,
restart. Done. No drivers needed. Expect under $20.

4) The key item: cloning software. Some drives come with, or you can
download from the manufacturer's sit, imaging software. Or, get hte
Acronis TrueImage triial, which is full-featured, free, ... but 100 meg.
www.acronis.com. Download, install, restart.

Now, attach the old and new drives, both at the same time. Tell Acronis to
clone, and choose MANUAL mode. To use this, you have to have both attached
at the same time.

In Manual mode, you can tell TI to extend the image of the original drive
to fill the entire new drive. Let it go, and go do something else for half
an hour. COme back, it's done.

Disconnect the drives, and place the new drive in the place (same jumper
settings) as the old drive. Do NOT reattach the old drive.

Restart, and you're basically done and should not have to activate. Once
the parts are on hand, this entire process can take me about 30 - 40
minutes.

HTH
-pk
 
chaandi said:
Hi...i got xp pro oem installed on a 10 gb drive...i want to upgrade it to
bigger drive....do i have to re-activate windows?
Click to expand...

You are allowed 4 specified hardware changes (7 with an Ethernet card).
Changing the hard drive for one of the same type counts as one change*.
Changing it for one of a different type counts as two. If you have changed
other hardware then reactivation becomes more likely.

*because the volume serial number also counts as a change
 
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